Jan Gehl Tours Downtown Brooklyn, Disses Yards
On Friday, urban planner Jan Gehl visited downtown Brooklyn, leading a tour that stopped at Metrotech, Fulton Mall, Atlantic Terminal Mall, and Atlantic Center Mall. As for his verdict on Bruce Ratner’s plans for the Atlantic Yards, Gehl, who’s also the Director of the Center for Public Space Research at the School of Architecture, Royal…
On Friday, urban planner Jan Gehl visited downtown Brooklyn, leading a tour that stopped at Metrotech, Fulton Mall, Atlantic Terminal Mall, and Atlantic Center Mall. As for his verdict on Bruce Ratner’s plans for the Atlantic Yards, Gehl, who’s also the Director of the Center for Public Space Research at the School of Architecture, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, had this to say: “It’s not what should be built in a city like New York…[Gehry’s] buildings are not human scale, they are designed for elephants and dinosaurs.” Dem’s fightin’ words!
Jan Gehl Tour [DDDB]
Jan Gehl Bio [Project for Public Spaces]
I’m not against tall monumental buildings. Everyone loves the Williamsburg Savings Bank, at 35 stories. Gehry’s design for the Atlantic Yards isn’t appropriate for Brooklyn, NY. It would look great in Las Vagas. I would rather Las Vegas architecure stay in Vegas.
I’m not a Ratner fan– I loathe his sneaky ways and previous useless projects. I’m vaguely intrigued by Gehry, but mostly from afar. I suppose neither of those things matters except to say that I used to work with architects all day, and this sounds more like a pissing contest. All architects think other architects’ work is crap**– unless they’re already dead, in which case they’re geniuses/visionaries. Unless they wound up getting copied too often, in which case they’re sellouts…. you get the idea.
**Sweeping statement made by non-architect who nonetheless feels it’s true.
Nuff respect to JoshK my favorite Brownstoner blogger.
hmm – call me a NIMBY, but I wouldn’t like the Pyramid of Giza going up next door to my house either…
Thank goodness we have such a benevolent guy like Bruce Ratner taking care of all the urban planning for us — Ha!
So true. Every single urban planner who has ever seen his vision come to fruition has been reviled by the populace. Their understanding of humanity, rooted in their inhuman, positivist lust of rationality and science has detached such persons entirely from the human soul.
Since the beginnings of civilization, men have always craved the most massive monuments possible. Is that what he thinks about the Great Pyramid, or what he would tell the people of Rhodes 3,000 years ago?
JoshK – I have a republican buddy – is back with this wisdom
Gee, what a shock. Did anyone ever think that Develop Don’t Destroy would align itself with someone who supported the Atlantic Yards? I find it great entertainment to watch the lengths to which opponents will go to make this project seem like Satan incarnate. At this point, I’ve heard terrorism, homelessness, traffic jams, intense heat and sun glare, and Ratner’s high-rise apartments turning into low-income housing projects in order to compensate for his failure to attract enough yuppie renters.
Pretty sure it was arranged by DDDB so obviously only the choicest quotes are included…We added a link to his bio so folks could see what predispositions he was bringing to the debate.